Mitchell, Joni (1943– )

Canadian singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She started her career in the 1960s folk style and later added elements of rock and jazz with sophisticated confessional lyrics. Her albums include Blue (1971), For the Roses (1972), and Court and Spark (1974).

She moved to New York in 1967 and recorded her first album, Song to a Seagull, in 1968. This was followed by Clouds in 1969 and Ladies of the Canyon in 1970. Blue appeared in 1971 after a year's break from performing. For the Roses marked a departure from Mitchell's earlier acoustic sound, incorporating orchestral arrangements. Court and Spark won her an accolade as Rolling Stone magazine's artist of the year. The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975), Hejira (1976), and Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (1977) followed, as did a collaboration with the US jazz musician Charles Mingus in 1979, resulting in the album Mingus. In 1998, she announced her first live concert appearances in more than a decade, supporting Bob Dylan on several of his West Coast dates.

Mitchell was born in Fort Macleod, Alberta, but moved to Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1945. She started piano lessons at the age of seven, and taught herself to play the guitar and ukulele. After high school and a year of art college, she began playing folk songs in clubs and at festivals, before moving to New York. Her later work includes Wild Things Run Fast (1982), Dog Eat Dog (1985), Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm (1988), Night Ride Home (1991), Turbulent Indigo (1994), two compilation albums, Hits and Misses (both 1996), and Taming the Tiger (1998). A collection of Mitchell singing old standards (such as ‘At Last’ and ‘Stormy Weather’) called Both Sides Now was released in 2000, and in 2002 she released orchestrated versions of songs that span her career on Travelogue. Mitchell was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.